THE OUTLAWED PARTY SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:16 AM Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:16 AM THE OUTLAWED PARTY SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN GERMANY, 18 7 8- 1 8 9 0 VERNON L . LIDTKE PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 196 6 Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:16 AM Copyright © i960 by Princeton University Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-14311 Publication of this book has been aided by the Whitney Darrow Publication Reserve Fund of Princeton University Press. The initials at the beginning of each chapter are adaptations from Feder und Stichel by Zapf and Rosenberger. Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, New York Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:16 AM CONTENTS PREFACE V I. THE EMERGENCE AND EARLY ORIENTATION OF WORKING-CLASS POLITICAL ACTION 3 The German Social and Political Context 3 Ferdinand Lassalle and the Socialist Movement: An Ambiguous Heritage 18 Political and Social Democracy in the Eisenacher Tradition: The "People's State" 27 Principles and Tactics: Parliamentarism as an Issue of Socialist Politics 32 II. THE MATURATION OF THE SOCIALIST MOVE­ MENT IN THE EIGHTEEN-SEVENTIES 39 The Quest for Revolutionary Identity and Organizational Unity 40 The Gotha Program as a Synthesis of Traditional Social Democratic Ideas 43 Unity between Social Democratic Theory and Practice in Politics 52 The Quest for Certainty in Economic Thought 59 On the Eve of Catastrophe: Social Democrats and German Society 66 III. Di SINTEGRATION AND RECOVERY JO The Catastrophe of 1878 70 Disintegration 78 The New Role of Social Democratic Parliamentarism 82 Steps toward Recovery: Der Sozialdemokrat and "The Red Army Postal Service" 89 Steps toward Recovery: Early Organizational Developments 97 Organization, Ideology, and Radical Temperament 104 IV. INVITATION FROM THE LEFT: ANARCHISM AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 106 Alternatives for Social Democratic Action 106 Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:17 AM Most's Super-radicalism in Conflict with the Parliamentary Socialists IIO The Purge of Most and Hasselmann 117 The Abortive Challenge of Anarchism to German Social Democracy 121 V. RADICALS AND MODERATES: Two VIEWS OF SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC POLITICS 129 The Emergence of New Internal Divisions 129 The Struggle for Control of Der Sozialdemokrat I31 The Confrontation at Zurich, August 19-21, 1882 135 Ideological Currents: The Moderates as Social Democratic Traditionalists The Emergence of a Moderate Socialist Press Ideological Currents: The Radicals as a Marxist Avant- garde and Ambivalent Parliamentarians 149 VI. INVITATION FROM THE RIGHT: STATE SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 155 Social Democratic Uncertainty in Response to State Socialism 155 The Confrontation with Bismarck's State Socialism in 1881 158 Social Democratic Discussions of State Socialism: The Internal Struggle 164 Lingering State Socialism: The Marxists against the RodbertusEnthusiasts 171 VII. GROWTH OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY CREATES A MAJOR CRISIS FOR THE PARTY 176 Elements of Social Democratic Expansion 176 Election Success in 1884: A Prelude to Crisis 185 The Radicals View a Positive Parliamentary Role for the Party I9i Steamship Subsidy Crisis 193 The Persistent Crisis: Control of Der Sozialdemokrat 204 The Unresolved Problem 210 Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:17 AM VIII. THE DEEPENED PARLIAMENTARY INVOLVE­ MENT: ITS RELATIONSHIP TO REVOLUTIONARY EXPECTATIONS AND POLITICAL DEMOCRACY 213 Social Democratic Parliamentary Activity at its Peak and the Unresolved Question of Parliamentarism 213 Economic and Social Reforms in the Reichstag 214 Economic and Social Reforms in the Saxon Diet 222 Social Democrats in Defense of Political Liberalism 228 Bebel and Liebknecht on Parliamentarism and Revolutionary Expectations 232 The Persistence of Ambivalent Parliamentarism and its Meaning 239 IX. SOCIAL DEMOCRATS AT BAY 241 Police Spies and the Renewal of the Socialist Law 242 The Suppression Increases: Puttkamer's Decrees 244 Social Democratic Leaders Go to Prison 248 The Election of 1887 and its Consequences 254 X. THE ST. GALL CONGRESS AND THE SUPREMACY OF AUGUST BEBEL 263 Opposition to Bebel Fades 263 The Congress at St. Gall, October 2-6, 1887 267 Bebel's Supremacy and Social Democratic Parliamentary Practice 273 Theoretical Marxism and Social Democratic Politics under Bebel 279 Conclusion 288 XI. THE END OF THE SOCIALIST LAW: SOCIAL DEMOCRACY'S VICTORY AND CHALLENGE 291 A Year of Great Changes 291 The Miners' Strike (1889) and Wilhelm II's Social Policy 292 February 20, 1890: 1,427,298 Social Democratic Votes! 298 May 1: "We Shall Seek to Do Our Duty" 301 The Jungen: Critics of the Established Leadership 305 Failure of the Jungen and the Problem of Parliamentary Democracy 311 Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:17 AM XII. THE HERITAGE OF THE SOCIALIST LAW EPOCH FOR SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 320 Political Uncertainty: Social Democratic Estrangement from Political Democracy 3 21 Lack of Unity between Theory and Practice: The Heritage of Ambivalent Parliamentarism 326 Certainty in Marxist Economic Theory 329 WeaknessandGreatness 331 APPENDIX A. The Gotha Program, 1875 333 APPENDIX B. The Erfurt Program, 1891 335 APPENDIX C. Text of the Socialist Law 339 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY 347 INDEX 367 Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:17 AM PREFACE Many of the problems of modern Germany have been integrally related to the history of the Social Democratic movement. Questions concerning the advancement of political democracy in the Bismarckian Reich, the integration of the working classes into German society and politics, the possibilities of peaceful reform and the expectations of violent revolution, all have been affected in varying degrees by the theory and practice of Social Democracy. For this reason the study of Social Democracy has been essential as one approach to under­ standing Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the existing scholarly literature has already clarified many of the funda­ mental problems. This book seeks to make a further contribution by providing a narration and analysis of the Social Democratic experience under the Socialist Law (1878-1890), the years known as the "heroic epoch" in the traditions of the party. To the Social Democrats, the heroism and excitement of clandestine activities stood out as the most memorable features of their experience under the Socialist Law; expulsions, ar­ rests, and imprisonment gave them a heightened sense of being revo­ lutionaries. From the perspective of the 1960's, however, the less ex­ citing aspects of the period appear to be equally significant, perhaps revealing even more about the fundamental nature of the movement. Without overlooking the illegal and secret labors of the Social Demo­ crats, I have given more attention to their lawful political endeavors in the Reichstag and the state diets, an aspect not usually stressed in the studies of this period. Much of my emphasis has been on the inter­ action between the practical political activities and the theoretical searchings of the Social Democrats, an approach that is intended to elucidate the meaning of the ideological shift that took place from the time of the Gotha program of 1875 to the adoption of the Erfurt program in 1891. More particularly, I have attempted to show how the following themes and changes were interrelated in the theory and practice of the movement: the shifting relationship of the Social Democrats to their traditional ideals of political democracy; the parallel issue of parliamentarism as it concerned their theory and practice; the search for guidance in matters of socialist economic theory; the various meanings they gave to the concept of revolution and their Brought to you by | The University of Texas at Austin Authenticated Download Date | 4/28/19 5:17 AM Vl PREFACE expectations about revolution; and the gradual penetration of Marxism as it displaced the reliance of the Social Democrats on Lassalle and other thinkers. Some very fundamental changes occurred within the Social Democratic movement during the Socialist Law, and it has been my objective to show how these came about and how they affected Social Democracy as a political party of the working classes. Writing the history of the Social Democrats under the Socialist Law has been an enjoyable task, for it was an era in which courage and success overcame despair and failure. Equally pleasant is the opportunity to express my gratitude for the advice and cooperation I have received from numerous persons and institutions in the course of writing this book. I should like especially to thank Professors Carl Landauer, Ray­ mond J. Sontag, and Werner T. Angress for their thoughtful sugges­ tions and guidance as I wrote an earlier version of this study at the University of California, Berkeley. My colleagues at Michigan State University, Professors Norman Rich and Herbert Kisch, gladly agreed to read the manuscript and offered ideas for its improvement. Al­ though Professors Carl E. Schorske and Guenther Roth were not di­ rectly concerned with the manuscript, I have benefited considerably from discussions with them on problems of Social Democracy. To the late Professor Dr. A. J. C. Rueter, formerly director of the Inter- nationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam, I am grate­ ful for permission to use the archive of the German Social Democratic party. Other members of the staff of the Instituut generously assisted my research, notably the late Werner Blumenberg, then director of the German division, and Dr.